'Pregame Lobby' Episode 8

Episode 8 of Pregame Lobby is now available for your viewing pleasure. This one is long and it has naughty language. If you have a short attention span or you're easily offended, this video is not for you.

Halo 3's Mythic Map Pack included on Halo Wars LCE

The good news is that the Mythic Maps sort of have a release date.

This morning Microsoft Games Studios announced that the long-awaited Halo 3 Mythic Map Pack, which includes Assembly, Orbital and Sandbox, will be attached to the Halo Wars Limited Collector's edition. That retail product is due in February of 2009. If Halo Wars isn't your cup of tea, rest assured, we're doing everything we can to get these maps on Xbox Live Marketplace as soon as possible after Halo Wars hits retail shelves. More details as soon as we have them, Internet!

7 on the 7th
* November’s 7 on the 7th will feature FFA gametypes on Blackout.

*Turkey Day
* Four days of tenuously Thanksgiving-themed FFA gametypes for 9 players:

Wishbone Brawl: Score points by beating down other players with the oddball. 10 points to win.
Black Friday: More slugs than hugs. Players spawn with Plasma Pistols and score points by beating down or assassinating other players. 25 points to win.
Turkey Carvers: Those turkeys won’t slice themselves. Team Swords, point leader moves slowly (‘cause he ate too much). 25 points to win.
Turkey Fiesta: It’s a party! Random primary and secondary weapons. Point leader is fat and slow, but we still love him. 25 points to win.
Tryptophan: The day the turkeys… Returned. Infection. Turkeys move quickly. Last Pilgrim Standing can run pretty fast. Most kills after 4 rounds wins.

Teammates of Genius

"Mr. Warthog Guy.'

We've all been frustrated by this player's tactics on the Halo 3 battlefield. Some of you are this player - ignoring all the pleading for you to "wait up" or turn back to scoop up a full complement of your comrades. If the latter is the case, then we feel obligated to inform you that this video is sarcasm. We really don't think your strategy is all that sound.

Average Joe - Pete the Duck

What's a Mongrilled? Step inside to find out.

If you spend any amount of time browsing the HBO forums (OMG, fix ur BBS Wu), then you've probably run into Pete the Duck. If you haven't, maybe it's time to drop in and say hello. And if you see him in-game, don't worry about steering your Warthog's grille in his direction - Pete will take care of that on his own. More on that later. For now, check out the Q&A.

Q. Hello, Pete. Would you like to tell us intimate things about yourself?

A. Online, I go by Pete. I’d tell you my real name, but then you would be obligated to make certain jokes. I’m a recent graduate who hasn’t found a “real job” yet, but I still manage a regular paycheck working as a technician for an ISP no one has ever heard of. In my free time, which I seem to have a lot of, I scan the Internets and tinker around on the ‘360.

Q. And the tag?

A. I once had a duck named Pete. So, literally, Pete the duck. Ever since, I’ve adopted the name for my online alias. Fun fact: Pete laid a few eggs. They were delicious.
Q. Duck eggs. Disgusting. Where can people find you online?

A. I’m hardcore halo.bungie.org—that was the first Halo community I stumbled upon and I’ve been hooked ever since. It is a fantastic community that seems to have an overall flavor of awesome. While there are communities that focus specifically on things like tricks or speed runs, HBO features a melting pot of people making montages, fan fiction, panoramic images, music, grunt plushies, poetry, 3D art—pretty much anything you could imagine. I dig the random awesomeness.

I also like to see what other people have been doing in Forge, so Forge Hub is another frequent haunt by me, although I rarely post there. The creativity people have shown in Forge really surprises me sometimes, especially when it comes to making working switches with an obscure combination of interlocking, custom power-ups, gravity lifts and fusion coils. Want to pick up a custom power-up during a game on Foundry and start a chain reaction that drops a Warthog in the middle of the map? No problem!

Q. What compels you to game? Do you game with friends and family?

A. I think there are two aspects to gaming that make it rewarding for me. First, I like the problem solving aspect of it. It is easier to explain when you talk about a game like Portal—you can clearly see that there is a problem that you’re trying to solve. Halo 3 is the same way, it just isn’t so blatant when you look at the game on the surface.

The social aspect of gaming is really important for me as well. I used to catch up with a long-distance friend by loading a custom game on Lockout. We’d chat about what was going on in our life while we tried to kill each other (“How’s the wife?” BAM!). I usually have a small-scale LAN about every 3 months, but Halo 3 has done a good job of replicating a similar sort of environment online. And when you start talking about online communities, even single-player only games can provide a social experience.

Q. Why Bungie?

A. It all started, many years ago, when there was a certain 10-minute long trailer included with a PC gaming magazine I subscribed to…

There are things that are specific to Halo that I think really hooked me. The recharging shields are very forgiving, letting you experience each encounter fresh, without having to worry about finding med packs or armor in between. Only being able to carry two weapons lets the game be paced differently than a traditional “magic inventory” FPS, giving you access to the “cool guns” rather quickly, instead of having you wait until you’ve beaten half the game first. And I think Halo has progressively nailed vehicular combat.

There are other games with a strong Sci-Fi story that I have enjoyed, but I think these elements have given the Halo series a ridiculous amount of replayability—in my case, anyway. Then Halo 3 comes out with saved films, armor variations, and Forge. Good grief! These are things I didn’t even know I wanted.

Q. Are you frightened by your commitment to the community?

A. It worries me sometimes.

Just kidding!

For me, Halo has a community that is pretty hard NOT to get involved with. A lot of the things I’ve done, community-wise, have been things I’ve done for my own enjoyment—I just share the end result. I can do that sharing because there are places out there, like halo.bungie.org, that support a huge range of community content, and those places are full of people with a positive attitude. A community like that encourages involvement—if you find or make something cool, or have a great matchmaking experience, you’ll want to share it. When I can look back and see I’ve been visiting that site since 2002, it can be a little surprising I guess.

Q. Do you swim around in any other online communities?

A. Erhm, …no.

Q. Final thought? A shout out perhaps?

A. So when are we going to find out something about Sandbox? Maybe some map dimensions? Blurry screenshot? Does it have a floor? Can we toggle the floor so it is a floating environment? Is there sand? Water? Can we change the ground surface with something similar to the filters the Legendary Maps had? How about the skybox, or lighting? Huh? Huh?

I want to make a shout-out to my gorgeous fiancée, Kristy, who is the most incredible girl, ever. She is epic win. And Erik and Calvin have better be getting ready for NovemberLAN. Yes, I named it. Just now.

Sandbox, eh? Can't say it rings any bells.

Well, that wraps it up for this week. Can't think of anything else we could have covered with Pete the Duck. Oh wait...that's right, "Mongrilled." Check the link for Blackstar's "Extra Medals" for Halo 3. Here's our man Pete earning one:

Sweet 'Goosing, Pete.

Thanks to Louis Wu at HBO for supplying the media. He also generously passed along a sweet screenshot of Pete trying (with some difficulty) to take out the ball carrier with a Ghost. Mmm....that's some delicious headstand.

Suit Your Spartan

"No sir, I didn't see you playing with your dolls again!"

"HaloTech.org is a community website dedicated to Halo. It has grown fast, especially with the recent updates to the website...

One of the main attractions is the GEE-MC flash game by ScottyGEE. GEE-MC let's you build your own SPARTAN using Halo-inspired images, hand-drawn by ScottyGEE. It is a very fine piece of work, and it comes packed with cheat codes [discoverable on Google] to help pimp your SPARTAN!

Everything at HaloTech.org is free for anyone to use. HaloTech is run for the community by community members!

The Choice is Yours

Tag and Release - 'Sniper'

Can it be Team Snipers time?

In honor of the previously lamented, newly announced playlist Team Snipers, this week’s Tag and Release is, you guessed it (or read the title), “sniper.”

This LITE-BRITE-like image also links to the tag “petition,” because we all know that e-petitions are a super valuable, super effective way to get things done in Adult Town. I mean it totally worked, am I right? In any case, let’s pour our colorful pegs out and take a peek at some of the other sweet screens we can find by searching for "sniper" and "snipers." In case you're still vexed on how to zoom in on content using the All Tags feature, click here. You don't need to adjust your sensitivity or plant yourself in the back corner of Valhalla (yeah everyone knows where you're camping, ace). This is point-and-shoot style stuff.

Of course, the search also returns a ton of Map and Game Variants. Why not download a few and get your trigger finger warmed up while you're waiting for the Team Snipers hopper to go live?

"Now that the Halo Movie Scenes project is officially wrapped up, it seems like the perfect time to start yet another entertaining endeavor. Suggested by many, our next community project features cover art from our favorite pastime. The goal is to recreate video game cover art in the form of a Halo 3 screenshot. You are welcome to use Forge, custom games, matchmaking, or campaign."
Head on over and have at it.

343 Guilt O' Latern - Voting Open

...but I require your assistance.

Voting is now open for HBO's Guilt O' Lantern, a Halo-themed pumpkin carving contest. According to the site, this year's crop yielding 53 entries. Hit the link, stroll through the patch, and pick your favorites.
Pumpkin Picking

A Mister Chief Halloween

Need one more artistic Halloween outlet?

Hawty McBloggy is soliciting 'shopped screenshots and silly paints of the much beloved Mister Chief for her blog:

"Many of you are probably counting down the hours until you get to visit a haunted house, attend a costume party, settle in for a marathon of horror movies, or continue the always fun (if slightly cold) tradition of trick or treating. In the festive spirit of Halloween, I thought it would be fun to take a break from our regular Friday Caption Fun and Halo 3 Heatmap Rorschach Inkblot Test activities to instead celebrate the spooky holiday with our much adored Mister Chief. So grab a spooky screenshot or start with a clean slate in Paint and create a Mister Chief with the best Halloween theme you can think of."

There's already a few works of art in the comments if you just want to check them out.

The idea of pumpkins carved in Halo forms was started by Bungie, in 2003. The winning pumpkins were pretty cool. We followed suit in 2004, with the first annual Guilt O' Lantern contest. It was, by most accounts, a success. Then, again, in 2005. And 2006. And 2007. Definitely a tradition at this point.

The Contest

The rules are basic, and the same as they've always been: Carve the coolest Halo-related pumpkin you can think of. Please the community, win a prize. Check out the pages above for examples of what's won in the past.

The Prizes

Every year, we try to have cool prizes. Sometimes, we plan ahead, and good things happen. Other times, we space, but we get fantastic donations. And sometimes, we just fail.

First Prize:

* One Signed (by Bungie) Halo 3 Action Figure
* Craig Mullins 'Marathon Compiler' print, formatted by Anaphiel (framed, viewable here)
* One Copy of The Cole Protocol, signed by Tobias Buckell
* A 12 month subscription to Xbox Live
* One 'Traxus' T-shirt, L or XL (PAX Exclusive)
* Tim Dadabo, the voice of 343 Guilty Spark, will record a message of your choice on your home answering machine, in his character's voice

Halo 3 Light Show

No planetarium or psychedelic rock required.

Hawty McBloggy sifted through the silt at Youtube and found an interesting "Light Show" using Halo 3 gameplay footage. It's long and could use some judicious editing, but it's a unique concept that could yield colorful dividends.

Fair warning from Hawty:

"I can’t say it was pulled off to its full potential but it’s definitely worth a watch. Running a too long seven minutes, there are some absolutely spectacular scenes but there’s also an equal amount of less interesting filler material. If you don’t want to invest that much time in this video, I highly recommend watching my personal favorites at the following time frames: :20-:40, 2:50-2:55, 3:25-3:35, and 5:10-5:30."

One year ago, Bungie celebrated Halloween with the first ever Double EXP weekend: Living Dead. To commemorate the brave men and women whose brains were consumed by the filthy un-living masses, we are bringing back Ranked Living Dead as a Double EXP weekend! And unlike last year's Double EXP, this year's will follow our standard format and will be available starting today, and lasting until Monday morning! Get out there and teach those zombies a thing or two about justice. Or love, if that's your thing. I'm not here to judge. You sick whackjob.

Anyway, if you missed last year's opportunity to get some Infection-specific medals in your ranked chest, now's your chance!

Ranked Living Dead is available now (11:00 am PDT, October 30th) until Monday 2:00 am, November 3rd. Heroic and Legendary map packs are required.

Keeping it Real

Not quite ready for prime time...

But getting close. Tim Monro put up a brief video detailing the progress he's making on a new project - a master of the Halo 3 Hayabusa helmet variant. Though it's not even half way done, it already looks pretty amazing. Check it out.

NeoGAF Favorites Updated

It needs more boxes.

If you missed the opening salvo fired by NeoGAF in last week's Community Spotlight, click on these here words to wind back time and get up to speed. If you're already good to go, read on for their parting shots, week two of NeoGAF's community favorites are locked and loaded. Head on over to Bungie Favorites to take a peak and queue them up for download.

While you're waiting, check out some insight into how one of their Forge creations came into being:

TJ Captain Blood has poured blood, sweat, and tears into his Forge creation, Arabella. Like any seasoned yachtsman preparing his vessel for a lengthy seafaring voyage, he’s tested each and every knot, stocked the galley to the gills, and yeah, thoroughly cleaned out the head. Before he shoves off, let’s have one last check of his manifest.

Q: What was your inspiration?

A: I really didn't go into the map making progress with much of a plan. I just kinda let things develop as I went. The one thing I knew was that I wanted to use a mancannon that would work somehow in that small space, without breaking the map.

Q: How long did it take to create?

A: I am not sure if it is done. Even though it is a relatively simple layout, Arabella has been a work in progress since Foundry was released. I am sure I will even be tweaking it after this.

Q: What aspect took the longest to get right?

A: I think the longest part of the map to get right was balance. I wanted to make sure that there wasn't a completely dominate spot of the map that people could camp. So I put a lot of time into playing custom games with friends and adjusting the map based on their feedback.

Q: How could Forge be improved?

A: Highlight objects and have the ability to copy/paste and mirror
Scalable objects. Allow the user to scale scenery objects’ height, width, et cetera
Add flooring objects that have customizable shapes and sizes
Customizable curved objects which can be used as hills
Different skins for scenery objects—gives map more variety and creativity
Make non-foundry-like maps more customizable
Customizable lighting sources
Interactive scenery: gates, doors, light-bridges, et cetera
Sentient life – birds, fish, butterflies, and infection forms
Ability to place soft walls and death barriers
Scenery like that moves (for example, conveyer belts)
Water

The NeoGAF crew also supplied an extensive list (a tome, really) of more down-to-Earth improvements they would like to see implemented in Forge. Items like like expansion or lifting of quota limitations, the addition of more destructible items, tools to facilitate interlocking, floating objects, snap-to grips, and other often discussed, often lamented omissions from the Forge sandbox. They labeled the coup de grace a pipe dream: “AI opponents with customizable spawns and triggers.”

Alas, as we’ve already stated, it just isn’t meant to be. Read that sentence again, please.

They also attempted to sneak in a game variant for comedic effect: Two Boxes. Designed by affable Irishman Shake Appeal, Two Boxes has a long and storied design history. It's also total crap. But there's a good chance it could coax a chuckle out of you. Fair warning: if you are looking for a serious gametype and map, this is not for you.